Writing Intensive Courses For Fall 2012

During the Year 4 semesters (Fall 2010 – Fall 2011), 74 sections of WI courses were run. The sections increased from 18 in fall 2010, to 21 in spring 2011, 35 in fall 2011 and 33 in spring 2012. This fall, there are 41 WI sections across the three campuses and online.

Fall 2012 Writing Intensive Courses

1. AE-101-OL1 (0033149) APPRECIATION OF ART Thoubboron
2. AE-101-PE2 (0035437) APPRECIATION OF ART Moore
3. AE-101-W04 (0035439) APPRECIATION OF ART Wallace
4. BS-101-W01 (0033187) BIOLOGY I Sloan
5. BS-102-M01 (0033188) BIOLOGY II Smith
6. BS-203-ME1 (0033215) MICROBIOLOGY Areche
7. BU-203-M01 (0033245) MARKETING Cox
8. CIS-101-M04 COMPUTER CONCEPTS/APPS Bernstein
9. CIS-202-ME1 SYSTEMS ANALYSIS AND DESIGN Yip
10. CT-101-ME1 (0033499) CRITICAL THINKING Della Fera
11. CT-101-WE1 (0033503) CRITICAL THINKING Hillringhouse
12. EC-101-M03 (0035411) ECONOMICS I Furrer
13. EN-205-M02 (0033758) INTRO LITERATURE Bender
14. EN-205-OL1 (0033762) INTRO LITERATURE Mitnick
15. EN-205-P01 (0033764) INTRO LITERATURE Marranca
16. EN-205-WE2 (0033768) INTRO LITERATURE Tilley
17. ENS-106-M01 (0033789) PUBLIC SPEAKING Tilley
18. ENS-106-MHY1 (0033801) PUBLIC SPEAKING Risher
19. HI-101-ME2 (0034257) WESTERN CIVIL I Kaempfen
20. HI-101-OL2 (0034259) WESTERN CIVIL I Jenkins
21. HI-101-OL3 (0034260) WESTERN CIVIL I Brozyna
22. HI-102-OL2 (0034270) WESTERN CIVIL II Brozyna
23. HI-102-W02 (0034274) WESTERN CIVIL II Drakulich
24. HI-201-OL1 (0034279) U.S. HISTORY I Perdew
25. HS-204 GROUP DYNAMICS Gasparino
26. MA-101-OL2 (0034678) COLLEGE MATH I Patel
27. MA-101-M03 COLLEGE MATH I Oriente
28. MA-101-WE1 COLLEGE MATH I Corpus
29. MA-103-M01 (0034687) BASIC STATISTICS Sankaran
30. MU-106-OL2 (0034742) APPRECIATION OF MUSIC Ayala
31. PH-101-M02 (0034780) INTRO TO PHILOSOPHY Fruncillo
32. PL-101-ME1 (0034791) INTRO POLITICAL SCIENCE Torres
33. PS-101-ME2 (0034813) INTRO PSYCHOLOGY Abdel Dary
34. PS-101-OL3 (0034818) INTRO PSYCHOLOGY Cianci
35. PS-101-P02 (0034820) INTRO PSYCHOLOGY Page
36. PS-101-W01 (0034823) INTRO PSYCHOLOGY Murphy
37. RL-101-OL2 (0034964) COMPARATIVE RELIGION Nesius
38. SC-104-WW1 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE D’Ambrosio
39. SO-101-M09 (0035423) INTRO SOCIOLOGY Brown
40. SO-102-OL2 (0035009) INSTITUTIONAL RACISM I White
41. SO-202-M01 CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY Burkart

Research and Information Literacy

The headline "Students Lack Basic Research Skills, Study Finds" in a Wired Campus post had caught my attention last year and I printed it to use in a workshop.

Information literacy is one of the components in the writing intensive courses that are part of our grant project here at PCCC and we know that students still struggle with the process.

Using information from the Project Information Literacy Progress Report, the post cited several findings that we deal with in all our classes.

1. 84% of students say that when it comes to course-based research, getting started is their biggest challenge. 
2. The three sources cited most often by students were course readings, search engines like Google, and scholarly research databases. 
3. Only 30% asked a librarian for research help. 

As an example from our WI courses, while a traditional research paper addresses all of the broadly defined information literacy (IL) competencies, we don't see that as the only - or always the best - means of assessing information literacy.

We actually encourage faculty to differentiate with students Research versus information literacy. Many of our students see research as only something that leads to a research paper.

We also encourage instructors to create assignments that may address only one or several of the IL competencies. For instance, a bibliography covers two of our stated competencies, while an annotated bibliography covers three others.

A two-part assignment from the one Western Civilization course demonstrates how our IL rubric can be used to assess competencies. Part 1 of the assignment asks the question "Does this website have an apparent bias?" for each website used. This can be assessed under the "Evaluation of Sources" criterion in the rubric, with some slight revisions tailored to the assignment. In this example, an answer on the "Beginner" level would demonstrate little or no recognition of the bias (or lack thereof) in the Web site. A "Developing" answer may demonstrate the recognition of bias but difficulty in articulating just what the bias is. A "Competent" answer would recognize the existence and the nature of the bias, and an "Accomplished" answer would demonstrate a recognition and explanation of the bias that is highly nuanced.

In the essay portion (Part 2) of the assignment, students have to compare their personal opinions (stated in a previous essay) with the opinion of others as found in the aforementioned Web sites. In this case, the students' essays can be evaluated under the "Uses information effectively in their writing assignments" criterion in the rubric. An essay on the "Beginner" level would use little or no information from the outside sources. A "Developing" essay would attempt to incorporate information from outside sources, and perhaps be off-topic at times. A "Competent" essay would use information from outside sources to support the topic and demonstrate some synthesis with their own ideas. An "Accomplished" essay would contain highly refined and articulated use of information from outside sources, as well as synthesis of this information with their own ideas.

Alison J. Head, a co-principal investigator for ProjectInfoLit.org, feels that our students "feel overwhelmed, and they’re developing a strategy for not drowning in all information out there. They’re basically taking how they learned to research in high school with them to college, since it’s worked for them in the past.”

From my own classes, I know that students do see "research" as more of a quest for the "right answer" than as a process of evaluating different arguments and coming up with their own interpretation. That aspect is also something we deal with directly in the critical thinking component of the WI course sections. Unfortunately, we also find that many instructors actually discourage looking at different arguments or including the students' interpretations in their assignments. Although encouraging those two things in all assignments wouldn't be practical, in redesigning GenEd courses as WI sections, we found there was almost no opportunities for that kind of diversity of thought in the existing assignments.

“Not being aware of the diverse resources that exist or the different ways knowledge is created and shared is dangerous,” says Ms. Head. “College is a time to find information and learn about multiple arguments, and exploring gets sacrificed if you conduct research in this way.”

WAC: The View from Introduction to Psychology

Dr. Lonna M. Murphy of Passaic County Community College made a presentation at the Atlantic Coast Teaching of Psychology Conference this summer. Her topic was "Writing across the Curriculum: The View from Introduction to Psychology"

Dr. Murphy has been teaching a writing intensive section of the Psych 101 course since 2009.

This is her "guest post" summary of her experience teaching the class as WI and as a "regular" section.

"All educators understand the importance of having our students obtain strong writing skills, regardless of the level at which we teach. At Passaic County Community College (PCCC), we have decided to address this concern by making writing intensive courses mandatory for our graduates as of 2009. In order to meet this goal, PCCC applied for and was granted a $2.5 million federal grant. This writing initiative included creating writing intensive courses for twenty of our General Education courses. All students must take at least one writing intensive course before graduating. Introduction to Psychology (PS 101) has been offered as a writing intensive course since fall 2007.

Writing intensive courses at PCCC must contain both formal and informal writing, assignments that incorporate information literacy and critical thinking, pre-writing and editing strategies, and have no fewer than 2500 words required for assignments. Students must also have completed the first semester of two required semesters of English Composition. Finally, writing intensive courses at PCCC are not allowed to have more than 25 students per class.

I have taught one writing intensive section and one non-writing intensive section of PS 101 for most semesters that they have been offered. I have found no difference in final grades for the two sections (M = 2.18 out of 4.0 for both types of PS 101, n = 160 over three semesters for the non-writing intensive sections and n = 70 over three semesters for the writing intensive sections). I do not have access to the data regarding the students’ performance on the CWE, but as of year three of the grant, we have seen an improvement in general CWE scores, and that improvement was greater for students who were required to take writing intensive courses when compared to those who were not required to take writing intensive courses.

As part of my poster presentation, I will be including and discussing the specific assignments that I have used in my writing intensive PS 101 course. These include a journal article assignment, a five-paragraph argumentative essay, and a synthesis assignment, as well as other informal writing assignments.

In conclusion, PS 101 is a useful course when trying to teach writing to students. This is especially true because of the emphasis on critical thinking in the field of psychology. Also, we have seen that the creation of writing intensive courses has improved."

Writing Intensive Courses for Fall 2011

The following Fall 2011 course sections as designated as Writing Intensive courses.

Based on their major, all students who entered PCCC after Fall 2007 are required to take 1 or 2 Writing Intensive courses to graduate. For more information on WI course requirements, go to page 21 in the Academic Bulletin.

Fall 2011 Writing Intensive Courses

Course Code	Course Name	Instructor
Paterson Campus
BS-102-ME1	Biology II	Greidanus
BS 203 M01	Intro to Microbiology	Loving
CIS-101 M04	Computer Concepts and Apps	Bernstein
CT 101 ME1	Critical Thinking	Ronkowitz
EN-205-M02	Intro to Literature	TBA
ENS-106-MHY1	Public Speaking—Hybrid Course	Risher
HI-101-ME2	Western Civilization I	Kaempfen
MA 101 M04	College Math	Corpus
MA 103 M01	Basic Statistics	Sankaran
PH-101-M02	Intro to Philosophy	Fruncillo
PL-101-ME1	Intro to Political Science	Torres
PS-101-ME2	Intro to Psychology	Termanini
SC 104-M01	Environmental Science	D'Ambrosio
SO-202-M01	Cultural Anthropology	Burkhart
Wanaque Campus
PS-101-W03	Intro to Psychology	Murphy
HI-102-W02	Western Civilization II	Drakulich
MA 101 WE2	College Math	Oriente
EN-205-WE2	Intro to Literature	TBA
CT-101-WE1	Critical Thinking	Hillringhouse
BS-101 W01	Biology I	Sloan
Passaic Campus
EN-205-P01	Intro to Literature	TBA
PS-101-P02	Intro to Psychology	Page
Online
AE-101-OL1	Appreciation of Art	Thoubboron
EN-205-OL1	Intro to Literature	TBA
HI-101-OL2	Western Civilization I	Jenkins
HI-101-OL3	Western Civilization I	Brozyna
HI-102-OL2	Western Civilization II	Brozyna
HI-201-OL1	U.S. History I	Perdew
MA 101 OL2	College Math	K. Patel
MU-106-OL2	Appreciation of Music	Ayala
PS-101-OL3	Intro to Psychology	Cianci
RL-101-OL2	Intro to Religion	Nesius
SO 102  OL2	Institutional Racism	White